Collection Scope and Content Note

This collection contains 7 letters that James C. Anderson wrote to James G. Miller, a friend, after moving from Winchester, Virginia, to Washington, Louisiana, in the 1850s. His first letter, dated January 20, 1850, recounts his journey to Louisiana via Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, taken primarily by steamboat. Anderson's remaining correspondence focuses on his life in and near Washington. He enjoyed life in the South, though he frequently reported missing friends from Virginia and often commented on the hazardous health conditions of a tropical climate. He wrote about women in Winchester and Washington, reminisced, and described the emotional impact of a recent yellow fever epidemic (October 5, 1853). Anderson's later letters focus on domestic life following his marriage in 1855, as well as on his planting ambitions for the year 1858.